US representative says relations with Finland are in order

Global problems have kept George W. Bush away from Helsinki

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There is nothing amiss in the relationship between Finland and the United States, even if President Tarja Halonen has not received an invitation to the White House and even if her counterpart George W. Bush has not visited Finland since both of them took office over six years ago.
      This is the message given by Mark Pekala, who has been Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs since July 2005.
      He sees the suspicions voiced by Finnish media outlets that Halonen and Bush have a chilly relationship as pointless, since the entire matter is "a question of scheduling".
      Pekala notes that President Bush's timetable is a very crowded one and he has to concentrate his available energy on the world's most immediate problems. There are no such problems in relations between the two countries, Pekala pointed out to Helsingin Sanomat last week.
     
The matter of the visit to Helsinki took on a certain topical edge recently when it was announced that Bush will be visiting the Estonian capital Tallinn in November, but will not make the hop across the Gulf of Finland to Helsinki.
      Pekala waves this away, too, as merely another aspect of presidential time-constraints. Bush will be attending a NATO summit in Riga, and before he goes to the Latvian capital he will spend a day in Tallinn. In other words, he will not be spending a great deal of time in the country.
      Mark Pekala praises the cordial relationship between Finland and the US as one of "friendship and partnership". He is in a position to make these remarks since in his present job he oversees the US's bilateral relations with Baltic, Nordic, and Central European countries.
      "We can't resolve all of the world's problems alone. Finland is helping for instance in the rebuilding programme in Afghanistan, and is playing its part in the peacekeeping missions in Southern Lebanon and Kosovo", lists Pekala.
     
The current crisis in relations between Georgia and Russia, which the United States is keeping a close eye on, is just one example of those problems.
      Pekala comments that the Americans are disappointed that Russia cut off postal, banking, and transport links with its neighbour at the eastern end of the Black Sea, and that the Russian side is planning further reprisals and sanctions - including the expulsion from Russia of Georgian citizens - after the espionage row that broke late last month.
      On September 27th Georgia detained four Russian officers on charges of spying. The quartet have since been handed over by the Georgians to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and they returned to Moscow last week. Despite the release, the rhetoric has been kept at a high volume.
      "We are urging Russia to give up these sanctions and to open dialogue and work together with Georgia towards a peaceful solution to this dispute, and to other wider issues that are outstanding between the two of them."
      According to Pekala, those wider issues include Georgia's territorial integrity and independence, problems with alleged Russian support for the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and particularly the fact that many Georgians resent the continuing Russian military presence in the country. Russia has military bases in Georgia (in Akhalkalaki and in Batumi), and the headquarters of the Russian military forces in the Caucasus are located in Tbilisi.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  President Halonen criticises proposed US terror legislation (26.9.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat